naplan state report – year 9 - bettereducation.com.au

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NAPLAN State report – Year 9

December 2017

© The State of Queensland (Queensland Curriculum & Assessment Authority) 2017

Queensland Curriculum & Assessment Authority PO Box 307 Spring Hill QLD 4004 Australia 154 Melbourne Street, South Brisbane

Phone: (07) 3864 0299 Email: [email protected] Website: www.qcaa.qld.edu.au

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.qcaa.qld.edu.au/

Contents

Preface ______________________________________________ 1

Who should use this State report? .............................................................................. 1

About the tests ............................................................................................................. 1

Marking and scoring the tests ..................................................................................... 2

Using NAPLAN reports to inform teaching and learning ............................................. 2

Other NAPLAN reports ................................................................................................ 3

Literacy ______________________________________________ 6

Writing ................................................................................................................ 6

Stimulus (writing prompt) Years 7 & 9 ......................................................................... 6

About the task .............................................................................................................. 6

Performance ................................................................................................................ 7

Sample script ............................................................................................................... 9

Commentary on sample script ................................................................................... 11

Language conventions ..................................................................................... 12

Spelling ...................................................................................................................... 12

Grammar and punctuation ......................................................................................... 15

Reading ............................................................................................................ 18

Numeracy ___________________________________________ 23

Results and item descriptions ................................................................................... 23

About the test ............................................................................................................. 25

Performance .............................................................................................................. 26

Implications for teaching ............................................................................................ 26

NAPLAN

State report – Year 9

Queensland Curriculum & Assessment Authority

December 2017

Page 1 of 28

Preface

The QCAA issues State reports on the performance of Queensland students on the National

Assessment Program — Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) tests. State reports provide system-

level information and are publicly available. This report for Year 9 students in 2017 contains:

• the Queensland performance on each item

• the national performance on each item

• the item descriptors

• a commentary on the state results

• some recommendations for teaching.

Who should use this State report?

The NAPLAN State reports help principals, teachers and other school personnel understand,

interpret and use information about student performance on NAPLAN.

School principals can use this report to provide information to the school community on aspects

of the tests. This would allow professional conversations with their teachers, curriculum leaders,

and department heads. Curriculum leaders can use this information to interpret the more specific

information given in their school and class reports. These other reports are explained below.

Since this report is publicly available on the QCAA website, it can also inform providers of teacher

training, special education services and educational research and policy.

Parents and carers can use this report to interpret the results on their child’s student report. They

are also able to judge how their child performed when compared with the whole population of

students. The item descriptors provide them with useful information about the scope of the tests.

About the tests

The purpose of the National Assessment Program (NAP) is to collect information that

governments, education authorities and schools can use to identify the important educational

skills Australian students can demonstrate.. As part of that program, the NAPLAN tests are

administered to full cohorts of students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 each year. These standardised

tests are sources of information about literacy and numeracy learning that can be used to inform

educational policy and current educational practice.

The NAPLAN tests were developed using the nationally agreed Statements of Learning for

English and Statements of Learning for Mathematics, 2005. Since 2016 however, the tests now

directly relate to the Australian Curriculum. The NAPLAN tests are designed to provide a

nationally comparable indication of student performance in Language conventions, Writing,

Reading and Numeracy. The tests are designed to assess student understanding in the following

areas:

Language conventions: The test assesses the ability of students to independently recognise

and use correct Standard Australian English grammar, punctuation and spelling in written

contexts.

Writing: The test assesses the ability of students to convey thoughts, ideas and information

through the independent construction of a written text in Standard Australian English.

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Reading: The test assesses the ability of students independently to make meaning from

written Standard Australian English texts, including those with some visual elements.

Numeracy: The test assesses students’ knowledge of mathematics, their ability to apply that

knowledge in context independently, and their ability to reason mathematically.

Marking and scoring the tests

Marking the tests

Markers mark those test items that do not use a multiple-choice format. These markers apply

nationally-agreed marking guides. There are marking guides for open-ended Reading items if any

such items are included. Marking guides allow consistent and reliable judgements by markers.

There are guides for the Writing test and one each for the constructed responses in Numeracy

and Spelling. For some Numeracy items, students may provide a correct response in different

forms. Professional officers decide on agreed scoring protocols for these items.

Calculating raw scores

The simplest calculation made in scoring the tests is the raw score — the number of questions

answered correctly. All of the questions for the Language conventions, Reading and Numeracy

tests are marked as either correct or incorrect. Raw scores for the Writing test are sums of the

marks on each of ten criteria.

Raw scores have limited use. They enable the performance of students who have all completed

the same test at the same time to be placed in a rank order, but they do not provide information

about the level of difficulty of the test nor the relative differences between students.

Constructing scaled scores and bands

To make raw scores more useful, they are transferred to scores on a common scale that reflects

how difficult it was to achieve each score. Each year ACARA publishes equivalence tables that

allow a student’s raw score to be located on the NAPLAN scale. The scale is comparable

between year levels for each assessment area. An equating process is also carried out on each

year’s test to enable scores to be compared between successive years of testing. For example, a

raw score of 20 on the Year 3 Reading test might be transformed to a scaled score of 354. This

will also represent the same achievement for a student with the same scaled score in Year 5, and

for a student with the same scaled score for Reading in a previous year.

Each NAPLAN scale is divided into ten bands used to report student progress.

Using NAPLAN reports to inform teaching and learning

Using scaled scores

The scaled score can compare the results of different students. Scaled scores provide a basis for

measuring and comparing students’ abilities across years of schooling, for example, comparing a

student’s result in Year 3 in 2015 and Year 5 in 2017. The scales can thus help to monitor the

growth of groups of students over time. This enables the school to review and/or consolidate

special programs that may have been put in place.

Principals and teachers should take care when making comparisons between small groups of

students. For groups of fewer than 10 students, differences may not be reliable, particularly small

differences.

https://www.nap.edu.au/information/glossary#b

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Using item analysis

While the national and state reports provide the comparative data, class reports provide a school

with the information that can be used to inform teaching and learning and to build capacity in

schools. Analysis of the NAPLAN class data, in particular the performance on each item, will

provide teachers with information about the understandings and patterns of misunderstandings of

students.

Looking at the performance on the items and then analysing the error patterns allows teachers

and principals to make hypotheses about why groups of students make particular errors. As

mentioned below, more detailed analysis by QCAA staff is available from the QCAA website.

Steps for analysis might be as follows:

Compare the facility rates (percentage correct) achieved by the school’s students with the

national and state results available in this document. Is their performance consistent?

Look at the common errors made by their students and compare them with the common errors

made in the state (only errors from Queensland students are available, and are found in the

item analyses that are part of SunLANDA Online).

Form hypotheses about why students are making these errors, e.g.

- How did students think about this aspect of the curriculum?

- What misunderstandings might these errors represent?

- How might the structure of the test question have shaped the response?

Using a combination of the NAPLAN data, school data and professional judgment, teachers may

then test these hypotheses to see whether they are valid or whether there is more to be thought

about and investigated. Teachers can then plan lessons related to the general areas where

students seem to need help. Teachers can also make judgments about teaching approaches and

curriculum.

The professional conversations that are part of this process are the most effective and powerful

way to use the data, as they are the vehicle for developing shared understandings.

Placing the tests in the assessment context

The results from the NAPLAN tests should be seen as only one input into a school’s assessment

program. Various forms of assessment are needed to inform the different stages of the teaching

and learning cycle. Principals and teachers should keep in mind that NAPLAN is a pencil-and-

paper, point-in-time, timed test that can only cover a few curriculum features.

The results from a school’s own assessments of students should be consistent with the NAPLAN

test results. If the test results are different from what was expected, consider the possible

reasons. The results of the tests may indicate aspects of student performance that need further

investigation within the classroom, using other forms of assessment.

An item with a low facility rate (percentage correct) may not necessarily indicate a problem in

teaching and learning. It may be that this was simply a difficult item for all students in this cohort

across Australia.

Other NAPLAN reports

In addition to the State reports, the following reports are produced:

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SunLANDA Online

Since 2015, student data has been released on the QCAA School Portal using the SunLANDA

Online interface. State schools can access the data through One School. Access to SunLANDA

as application software is also still available on the QCAA website.

SunLANDA Online provides class and school information in an electronic form that permits

customised spreadsheet generation by users. In addition, it shows representative samples of

students’ incorrect responses to constructed responses where applicable. Hyperlinks from within

SunLANDA Online lead to the QCAA’s test item analysis. Information on how to use this service

is available at: www.qcaa.qld.edu.au/p-10/naplan/test-reporting-analysis/sunlanda/accessing-

navigating-sunlanda

Test Item analysis

These pdf documents contain analysis of each test item. They can be downloaded directly from

the QCAA website. The analysis reproduces each item followed by expert analyses of how the

item operated. It shows the distractors presented in multiple-choice items and explains students’

reasoning.

School and class reports

The NAPLAN school and class reports are supplied electronically on the secure section of the

QCAA website. These reports are accessible only with the school’s Brief Identification Code (BIC)

login and password. Individual student reports are distributed to schools as printed copies.

School reports

The QCAA issues NAPLAN School reports giving information about each school’s performance.

They provide a summary of year-level performance as well as performance by gender, language

background and Indigenous status in the following fields:

distribution of scaled scores

distribution of achievement bands

school and state means

participation of the group.

The School report positions a school’s performance within the state on a graph that is shaded to

show the range of performance for the middle 60% of Queensland students together with the

state mean.

Class reports

The QCAA issues NAPLAN class reports that show the performance of every student on every

item. Under the name of each student is recorded the items they had correct and incorrect. They

also show students’ responses to constructed-response items.

The class report also gives the:

percentage correct for each item for the class and state, and by gender

scaled scores for each student

performance bands for each student.

https://www.qcaa.qld.edu.au/p-10/naplan/test-reporting-analysis/sunlanda/accessing-navigating-sunlanda

https://www.qcaa.qld.edu.au/p-10/naplan/test-reporting-analysis/sunlanda/accessing-navigating-sunlanda

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Individual student reports

The QCAA issues individual student reports to schools after the tests. Schools receive one

printed report for each student to distribute to parents/carers.

ACARA Reports

As well as the Queensland reports from the QCAA, national reports are available from the

website of the Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA). The

NAPLAN National Summary Report and the NAPLAN National Report allow states and territories

to place the achievement of their students in relation to their peers across the nation. This is

system-level information and is publicly available.

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Literacy

Writing

Stimulus (writing prompt) Years 7 & 9

About the task

In 2017, the NAPLAN Writing test was based on the persuasive genre. As was the case in the

past two years, two prompts were used: one for Years 3 & 5 and another for Years 7 & 9. The

test conditions and administration remained the same as in previous years, i.e. teachers delivered

the same spoken instructions and read the text aloud to students. Working independently,

students had to plan, compose and edit a written response. Students were allowed five minutes

to plan, 30 minutes to write their script, and a further five minutes to edit and complete the task.

Three pages were provided for students to write a response.

The 2017 prompt for Years 7 & 9 was titled Don’t waste it. Students were asked, in the textual

component of the prompt, to:

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Write to persuade a reader why something you care about should not be wasted or thrown

away.

Choose something that you think should be re-used or recycled, or kept forever.

Additional textual information was provided. This named the structural components, and

further defined these elements, e.g. Start with an introduction. An introduction lets the reader

know what you are going to write about. Other notes were also provided in relation to the

conventions associated with the writing task, e.g. write in sentences, check and edit your writing

etc. A montage of stylised images surrounded the text, covering a range of possible topics/ideas

such as a sun (global warming or renewable energy), a tap (water conservation), a clock (time)

etc.

The prompt was relatively open-ended, allowing students to base their writing on one or more

of the images provided, or compose their own text around a particular idea.

Markers for this Writing test were trained using the national persuasive writing marker training

package, delivered as part of ACARA’s national assessment program. Markers were recruited

and trained in accordance with national protocols. Registered Queensland teachers marked the

NAPLAN Writing test scripts. All markers applied the 10 criteria and related standards from the

marking rubric. Writing test scripts were marked on screen in all states and territories. Stringent

quality-control measures were applied to the marking of student scripts, including a prescribed

percentage of scripts to be double-marked, and the daily application nationally of control scripts

for all markers. As part of the Queensland marking operation for 2017, referee marking continued,

further ensuring marking reliability. There was also provision for appeal over individual Writing

test scores after the results were released. On appeal, a student’s script was re-marked

independently by two senior Writing test markers.

An earlier version of the NAPLAN Persuasive writing marking guide is available at:

www.nap.edu.au/_resources/Amended_2013_Persuasive_Writing_Marking_Guide_-

With_cover.pdf

Performance

There seems little doubt that the 2017 prompt was particularly suited to students in Years 7 &

9, with the content likely to be evident in a range of secondary learning areas such as English,

Science and Humanities and Social Science. For the most part, students elected to focus on

strongly environmental issues such as the excessive use of plastic, conservation of water, the

renewable/non-renewable debate etc. Students who diverged from these more obvious

responses were able to explore more abstract subjects such as time, love, relationships,

memories etc., and generally, though not exclusively, wrote with greater proficiency. A small

group of students successfully negotiated generalised territories such as writing a persuasive text

purely on subjects like ‘taking opportunities’, without even providing more specific threads of

information. In many cases though, this broader generalised approach ran out of substance.

Undoubtedly this year, students were more acquainted with the topics of their choice, and could

‘flesh out’ arguments with plausible supporting detail. Some students’ field knowledge, such as

damage to the Barrier Reef and the need for its preservation, was truly remarkable.

In most cases, students in Years 7 & 9 showed competence with the persuasive form.

Introductions provided more natural orientation for the reader, with quite passionate statements of

position often presented. For example:

Clean, fresh and pure. This was what the air of the world used to be like. Now it has been

tainted, riddled with large amounts of carbon dioxide and fumes from man-made products. The air

is balancing on a fragile scale that has nearly been tipped. You need to care about the air. (Year

9 student)

http://www.nap.edu.au/_resources/Amended_2013_Persuasive_Writing_Marking_Guide_-With_cover.pdf

http://www.nap.edu.au/_resources/Amended_2013_Persuasive_Writing_Marking_Guide_-With_cover.pdf

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As previously indicated, the body of texts tended to be more substantial and showed accurate

use of credible information. The use of improbable data, quotation etc. was less evident than in

2015, the most recent Persuasive Writing test. Teachers should be wary of approaches to writing

that suggest the inclusion of implausible data or dubious supporting evidence attributed to some

‘invented’ authority. Markers are trained to accept what is on the page at face value, but irrelevant

or erroneous information does little to support a writer’s point of view, particularly at the higher

end of the writing spectrum.

Though time in a demand writing task obviously affects the way in which student writing

concludes, many responses included only a brief summation or re-statement of the text. Those

students who, in conclusion, challenged the reader to fully consider the arguments presented

produced highly effective closure to their writing, as the following extract demonstrates:

In conclusion, it would be catastrophic to lose handwriting. In a way, it articulates who we are!

Without it, we are blank and homogenous. It increases our finger strength, fine motor skills, is

always at hand, and bolsters out creativity. More physical skill. More convenience. More

creativity. Handwriting will always be a part of who we are. (Year 7 student)

There was a relative improvement in Writing test performance compared to 2016 (narrative

genre) and 2015 (last persuasive genre tested.) Most notably, students in Years 7 & 9 performed

strongly in the criteria of Audience and Ideas. The appropriateness of the prompt may have been

a contributing factor here. However, there was some gain in other skills-related criteria, such as

Spelling and Sentence Structure (Year 9). Field familiarity may have contributed to spelling

improvement, and it appears that students are gaining a stronger grasp of the causal and

conditional grammatical clause forms associated with the persuasive genre. There remains room

for improvement in the criterion of Punctuation. The use of ‘run-on’ sentence forms, often

associated with the use of ‘splice commas’ as breaks, is a significant factor. Much of this has to

do with the shift from oral to written language modes. The formalities associated with writing, in

test conditions and elsewhere, need constant attention in writing programs. Punctuation can

easily become a casualty of contemporary communication forms if it is not dealt with through a

rigorous and contextualised writing program, closely associated with reading good-quality

published texts.

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Sample script

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Commentary on sample script

This excellent persuasive text explores the links between culture, communication and

language. At first glance, the reader may think the text is predominantly an exposition on these

subjects, but in fact, the writer gradually and carefully mounts the case for the retention of

‘second’ languages, culminating in the topic statement in the final paragraph, …don’t waste it!

At the higher levels, Year 9 students begin to reflect on ideas and themes that extend beyond

their personal experience. In this text, the writer explores topics of local and international

significance, effortlessly transitioning between the personal and local (… shops or businesses

usually provide lots of speech-related activities or promotions) to the global and abstract (As

globalisation continues on its dominating path, it is even more crucial to retain these languages).

In fact, it is the quality, breadth and relevance of ideas presented that distinguish this text from

the norm.

Structurally, all textual elements worked in a coordinated and deliberate fashion as the

argument was built. The issue of loss of cultural identity due to the pressure to drift away from

‘first’ languages was outlined in the introductory paragraph, together with a clear position

statement regarding the need to preserve such languages. The body of the text raises the notion

of the assimilation into new cultural experiences for ‘second’ language speakers, together with

the potential damage this may cause to the traditional cultures of migrants etc. The advantages of

multilingualism, presented as another means of cementing ‘first’ languages, were also provided in

a substantial body paragraph. The final paragraph reminded the reader of the territory that had

been covered, with language choices indicating a more personal tone; …languages must be

cherished, …don’t waste it, …use and appreciate.

As indicated, the text is highly cohesive. The choice of text connectives and conjunctions

strongly contributed to this, together with lexical chains that effectively linked the stages of the

text. A number of the text connectives and themes had a highly ‘adult’ tone (The fact that…, On

the other hand, Subsequently, With Western influence seen…, Furthermore etc.).

The vocabulary was well-suited to the overall flavour of this text, a sophisticated, intelligent

defence of ethnic speech and language. Nominalisation (distribution, continuation, globalisation,

communication etc.) added authority. The writer’s presentation was made more powerful by the

use of germane adjectival or adverbial groups associations such as wonderfully diverse,

undoubtedly connected, truly extraordinary, gigantic part, dominating path, boundless

opportunities etc.

Similar to other aspects of the text, the skills areas of spelling, punctuation, paragraphing and

sentence structure were almost flawless — a truly remarkable example of a demand writing task.

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Language conventions

Spelling

Results and item descriptions

The percentage columns give the facility rate (percentage correct). These results are based on

provisional data.

It

em Answer Qld% Aust% Description

Proof-reading — Error identified

1 microscope 93.17 93.3 Correctly spells a three-syllable word based on the

Greek root micro-.

2 spectator 77.26 78.13 Correctly spells a three-syllable word with the ending

-or.

3 saucepan 60.74 64.27 Correctly spells a two-syllable compound word with

the vowel digraph -au-.

4 novelties 69.22 70.51 Correctly spells a three-syllable plural word requiring

a final -y to -ie- change.

5 preferable 68.84 70.35 Correctly spells a multisyllable word with an elided

syllable.

6 extremely 61.66 61.92 Correctly spells a three-syllable word with the suffix

-ly.

7 observance 73.78 74.44 Correctly spells a three-syllable word with the suffix

-ance requiring an -e drop.

8 indigenous 54.61 53.43 Correctly spells a multisyllable word with a schwa

sound.

9 sanctuary 55.84 57.38 Correctly spells a multisyllable word with the ending

-ary.

10 discipline 31.72 33.99 Correctly spells a three-syllable word with the

consonant digraph -sc-.

11 invertebrate 26.08 30.94 Correctly spells a multisyllable technical word based

on Latin roots.

12 herbivorous 22.64 24.59 Correctly spells a multisyllable word with an

unstressed syllable.

Proofreading — Error not identified

13 investment 70.71 74.49 Identifies an error, then correctly spells a three-

syllable nominalisation.

14 monopoly 66.51 66.77 Identifies an error, then correctly spells a

multisyllable word with Greek roots.

15 cooperate 64.07 66.63

Identifies an error, then correctly spells a

multisyllable word with the prefix co- and the base

word beginning with -o-.

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16 suspicious 49.71 51.25 Identifies an error, then correctly spells a three-

syllable word with an -ious ending.

17 initiation 37.19 40.24 Identifies an error, then correctly spells a

multisyllable word with -ti-.

18 kayak 27.97 31.11 Identifies an error, then correctly spells a two-syllable

word with an uncommon letter pattern.

19 haphazard 24.92 26.31 Identifies an error, then correctly spells a three-

syllable word with an unaccented final syllable.

20 camouflage 17.57 17.2 Identifies an error, then correctly spells a three-

syllable word with an uncommon letter pattern.

21 intrigue 20.13 21.72 Identifies an error, then correctly spells a two-syllable

word with the ending -gue.

22 fluorescent 7.58 10.17 Identifies an error, then correctly spells a three-

syllable word with an uncommon letter pattern.

23 miscellaneous 14.75 15.92 Identifies an error, then correctly spells a

multisyllable word with a schwa sound.

24 plateau 8.6 10.36 Identifies an error, then correctly spells a two-syllable

word with the uncommon letter pattern -eau.

25 resuscitated 10.33 10.9 Identifies an error, then correctly spells a

multisyllable word with a schwa sound.

About the test

The 2017 Year 9 test involved the following spelling features:

Schwa vowel (‘uh’): ‘Schwa’ is a neutral vowel sound. Its spelling cannot be ‘sounded out’.

Knowing how to spell words with the schwa involves knowing:

the spelling of prefixes and suffixes, e.g. micro- (microscope), mono- (monopoly), -ment

(investment), -or (spectator), -ous (herbivorous), -ance (observance), -ary (sanctuary)

vowel alternation patterns in affixed words, e.g. gene to indigenous, vertebral to invertebrate,

disciple to discipline, miscellany to miscellaneous, cite to resuscitated, herbivore to

herbivorous, prefer to preferable

the visual look of a stock of mature vocabulary words, e.g. haphazard, camouflage.

Soft s: The soft s sound was tested with the digraph sc (discipline, resuscitated,

miscellaneous fluorescent) and with c alone (saucepan).

‘Esh’ consonant (‘sh’): The ‘sh’ sound, spelled c and t, was tested in suspicious and

initiation.

Long and diphthong vowels were tested in extremely, intrigue, plateau and saucepan.

Affixes and inflections were tested in cooperate (prefix com- assimilated as co-), extremely

(suffix -ly added to a word ending in e), sanctuary (suffix -ary), novelties (plural inflection of a

noun ending in y); haphazard (an adjective unrelated to the past tense inflection -ed), herbivorous

(an adjective distinct from the plural noun herbivores).

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Performance

Queensland students’ facility was a little lower than the national average on most spelling

words, especially invertebrate and investment. Queensland was a little higher on indigenous.

Attempts by students to ‘sound out’ letters is often evident, e.g. ‘disapline’, ‘invertibrate’ and

‘monopaly’. This is an especially ineffective strategy for spelling words that contain the schwa or

neutral vowel. The same tendency to spell phonetically is seen in student misspellings of the

words with an s sound spelled sc, e.g. ‘disapline’, ‘resusetated’ and ‘flouresent’.

Full reports on student performance and error patterns on each item are published in the

SunLANDA program and as PDF documents at https://www.qcaa.qld.edu.au/p-10/naplan/test-

reporting-analysis/test-item-analysis

Implications for teaching

The test results show Year 9 students’ inappropriate use of ‘sounding out’ strategies. They

need to learn the other ways that English spelling represents words.

In particular, they have to know that suffixes and inflections have grammatical effects. It is not

possible, for example, to use a past tense inflection, -ed, on an adjective such as haphazard.

Affixes have stable spellings themselves and they have regular spelling effects on base words.

Students need to build a mature vocabulary. Word study belongs in all their subjects, not just

English. Students should learn:

the pronunciation of advanced words and their look on the page

the meaning of their component morphemes (word parts)

other words built from the same stem.

In subject English, spelling lessons should focus on regular patterns, not on random ‘hard’

words. For example, the suffix -ous belongs with other suffixes that form adjectives, such as -y, -

able,

-acious, -ic, -al, -ish, and -est. From another angle, -ous words can be divided into those with a

‘sh’ sound, e.g. suspicious, and those without, e.g. indigenous. Exceptions, rarities and oddballs

should be noted as well as the general patterns.

Proofreading skills should be taught as an authentic writing skill. This will also help students

read test questions carefully.

QCAA resource

Teaching implications for each item are published in the item analysis documents available

through the SunLANDA program or as PDF documents at https://www.qcaa.qld.edu.au/p-

10/naplan/test-reporting-analysis/test-item-analysis

https://www.qcaa.qld.edu.au/p-10/naplan/test-reporting-analysis/test-item-analysis




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Grammar and punctuation



provisional data.

Ite

m Answer Qld% Aust

%

Description

26 B 94.62 94.59 Identifies the correct tense of an irregular verb in a

complex sentence.

27 C 88.96 89.46 Identifies a simple sentence requiring a question mark.

28 D 80.31 80.83 Identifies a word that cohesively links two parts of a

compound sentence (pronoun reference).

29 C 89.16 89.38 Identifies correct use of commas for an embedded clause.

30 C 77.72 77.84 Identifies a sentence that correctly embeds a subordinate

clause inside a noun phrase.

31 A 86.79 88.32 Identifies the correct use of an exclamation mark to end a

simple sentence.

32 B 39.11 40.4 Identifies the correct connective to link two sentences.

33 A 54.54 58.04 Identifies two correct past tense verbs to complete a

compound sentence.

34 B 70.51 72.43 Identifies the correct use of list commas in a sentence with

prepositional phrases and embedded clauses.

35 B 68.74 70.85 Identifies a lexical cohesion error in a series of linked

sentences.

36 B 58.82 61.09 Identifies an error in colon use.

37 011010

01 * 38.14 35.88

Identifies main and subordinate clauses in complex

sentences.

38 A 58.2 56.51 Identifies the correct use of brackets in a simple sentence.

39 C 53.79 51.26 Identifies a compound sentence.

40 C 39.83 41.64 Identifies a sentence without a parallel construction error.

41 D 42.36 42.01 Identifies a word introducing an adverbial clause in a

complex sentence.

42 D 63.96 65.82 Identifies that a verb and preposition correctly complete a

sentence.

43 B 45.73 44.85 Identifies the sentence using a specified noun group as

the grammatical subject.

44 A 35.47 39.27 Identifies the correct use of the apostrophes of contraction

and possession.

45 D 58.39 59.89 Identifies the sentence which coherently combines

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information from three separate sentences.

46 D 41.92 44.3 Identifies two complex punctuation errors in a sentence.

47 A 42.07 26.12 Identifies the sentence with the highest modality.

48 C 29.7 29.01 Identifies the correct passive transformation of an active

sentence.

49 D 5.62 5.49 Identifies a preposition in a complex sentence.

50 BD 47.59 48.53 Identifies two subordinate clauses that can be embedded

to add detail about the subject of a sentence.

* Answers in sequence: subordinate, main, main, subordinate

About the test

The 2017 test covered similar skills to previous years of NAPLAN testing. In recent years,

there has been an increase in the inclusion of metalinguistic terms, particularly in item

stems/questions, and this knowledge or lack thereof impacts on student performance on a

number of items in the NAPLAN grammar and punctuation component of the Language

conventions test.

Performance

The Queensland Year 9 students performed comparably with the national cohort on this

component of the Language conventions test. Although they usually performed a little below,

Queensland students exceeded national facility rates slightly on Items 37 (identifying main and

subordinate clauses) and 39 (compound sentences). However, Queensland students out-

performed the national mean by a very large 16% on Item 47 (modality). It may be that the

inclusion of the concept of modality in Queensland work programs focusing on National

Curriculum concepts has contributed to this unusual differential in performance.


The teaching and assessing of grammar and punctuation should be:

developmental — covering increasingly mature skills

timely — taught when students need to learn

systematic — covering the features relevant to the levels of communication, from the whole- text

level to the sentence level and down to groups of words.

As indicated earlier, there remains a demand on students (and teachers) to be familiar with the

metalanguage associated with grammar and punctuation. Many items use the linguistic label in

the question/stem, e.g. In which sentence is your new pup the subject of the main clause? (43).

Which sentence is a compound sentence? (39). In fact, 44% of items included some

grammatical or punctuation terminology. Students unfamiliar with this terminology would have

difficulty answering items of this type. Possibly the most abstract use of terminology was found in

Item 48, which asked to change a sentence from ‘active’ to ‘passive’ voice. Only about one third

of students were able to correctly answer this item, a nationwide characteristic.

It needs reiterating how students also need an awareness of how grammar functions in

different circumstances. Item 49, for instance, asked: Which word in this sentence is a

preposition? Knowledge of the term preposition was clearly required, but students who could

recognise the function being performed by the word in each of the options would have been in a

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stronger position to answer successfully. Though the distractors to, before and over could

sometimes act as prepositions in other contexts, in this item with was the only word that

introduced a phrase.

At a testwiseness level, students appeared to show a little more ‘endurance’ than in previous

years with the lengthier punctuation items (Items 34 and 44), which required a close scan of

options that bore great similarity in appearance, at first glance.

The NAPLAN Language conventions test provides one just one ‘cut’ of language use. To

improve literacy skills in grammar and punctuation, it is important to select reading materials

appropriately, being careful to include texts that are challenging and sometimes divergent in form.

The conventions of language are ideally best taught within appropriate contexts, through micro-

lessons on very specific (and often problematic) language elements. The structure of the

Australian Curriculum should ensure that knowledge and understanding of grammatical concepts

and punctuation conventions are acquired in a systematic fashion. As in all learning, some basic

language conventions (identifying parts of speech, clause structure, verb tense etc.) will need

revisiting. Often, this is best achieved through students’ own writing, where more appropriate

language choices can be brought to students’ attention.

By Year 9, however, students also need to be aware of more sophisticated concepts such as

modality (Item 47), parallel construction (Item 40), and passive voice (Item 48). A comprehensive

language program at Year 9 should address these types of language forms.

QCAA resources

Please refer to SunLANDA, which is available to schools via the School Portal on the QCAA

website through the school BIC and password. The SunLANDA program displays the school’s

results but also links to detailed analysis of every item on the NAPLAN test. The analyses include

Australian Curriculum links, language resource texts and other QCAA materials. The item

analysis is also available collected into PDF format on the NAPLAN pages of the QCAA website.

Books by Beverley Derewianka and Sally Humphrey suggest ways of teaching that can often

apply to older students. (Published by Primary English Teaching Association Australia.)

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Reading



provisional data.

Ite

m Answer Qld

%

Aust

%

Description

Triathlon

1 D 99.04 99.28 Locates directly stated information in a simple

information text.

2 C 96.47 96.72 Locates directly stated information in a simple

information text.

3 A 97.76 97.95 Links directly stated information in a simple information

text.

4 B 91.81 92.74 Identifies the purpose of a section of a simple

information text.

5 B 95.53 95.95 Locates directly stated information in a table in a

simple information text.

Hunting

6 D 88.24 85.79 Identifies the reason for a character's actions in a

fictional recount.

7 C 95.31 96.06 Interprets directly stated information in a fictional

recount.

8 B 93.05 93.72 Interprets how a character is portrayed in a fictional

recount.

9 D 93.28 94.44 Links directly stated information across sentences in a

fictional recount.

10 B 49.85 50.99 Interprets the meaning of vocabulary in context in a

fictional recount.

11 C 74.17 74.29 Identifies a character's role in a fictional recount.

Sport bridges nations

12 C 80.95 82.43 Identifies the main idea of a persuasive text.

13 D 70.59 74.37 Locates directly stated information in a persuasive text.

14 B 84.86 87.32 Identifies the purpose of an example in a persuasive

text.

15 A 49.84 56 Identifies the main argument of a persuasive text.

16 A 49.65 49.05 Identifies the style of writing in a persuasive text.

Goblin sharks

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17 C 71.6 72.43 Identifies the purpose of a photograph in an

article.

18 B 70.01 69.98 Identifies the use of imagery in an article.

19 A 64.74 64.44 Interprets the meaning of vocabulary from context in

an article.

20 ADE 67.38 68.69 Identifies the use of modal language in an article.

21 D 58.91 60.5 Interprets the meaning of a phrase from context in an

article.

22 C 39.08 41.51 Links the meaning of a literary quote to information

from an article.

23 B 33.76 33.33 Identifies the purpose of comparison in an article.

Star struck

24 C 70.7 70.76 Identifies a central theme of a detailed first-person

narrative.

25 C 68.38 66.76 Analyses the effect of an introductory sentence in a

detailed first-person narrative.

26 B 75.03 77.11 Interprets a pronoun reference across paragraphs in a


27 D 64.28 67.07 Interprets the meaning of vocabulary in context in a


28 D 43.99 45.24 Interprets the meaning of figurative language from

context in a detailed first-person narrative.

29 A 50.57 52.92 Analyses the effect of figurative language in a detailed

first-person narrative.

Seeing stars

30 D 47.03 46.98 Identifies the use of a metaphor in a detailed

information text.

31 B 75.29 76.55 Interprets the meaning of vocabulary from context in a

detailed information text.

32 A 59.29 61.3 Analyses the author's perspective implicit in a

sentence from a detailed information text.

33 BF 41.54 44.84 Interprets directly stated information in a detailed

information text.

34 5;2;4;1;3 17.47 19.49 Analyses the flow of an argument in a detailed

information text.

Star struck and Seeing stars

35 D 62.26 65.93 Applies a character's perspective to a scenario across

two texts on a similar theme.

36 CD 33.97 36.45 Identifies similar information across two texts on a

similar theme.

Should students have a job while they are studying?

37 B 63.27 63.6 Interprets the meaning of a phrase from context in a

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discussion.

38 A 26.42 25.18 Analyses the use of a persuasive device in a

discussion.

39 D 52.47 54.3 Identifies an author's perspective in a discussion.

40 C 47.34 49.81 Analyses the use of a persuasive device in a

discussion.

41 A 63.15 68.85 Interprets the main argument in a paragraph from a

discussion.

42 C 25.8 28.04 Identifies the purpose of introductory paragraphs in a

discussion.

43 B 16.16 17.02 Identifies the tone of a discussion.

The sword of Damocles

44 B 56.88 58.82 Interprets the meaning of vocabulary in context in a

complex myth.

45 A 56.24 59.04 Analyses a character's motivations in a complex myth.

46 C 49.79 51.08 Interprets the meaning of a simile in context in a

complex myth.

47 D 50.6 52.41 Interprets the reason for a character's actions in a

complex myth.

48 A 48 50.39 Contrasts the meaning of a literary quote with a moral

from a complex myth.

49 BDE 23.46 24.8 Identifies moral lessons in a complex myth.

About the test

This year’s Reading test consisted of 49 items based on eight reading magazine units

spanning the genres of information, fictional recount, persuasion, first-person narrative and myth.

There were no short-response items. However, this year’s test included four items which required

multiple responses (see Items 20, 33, 36 and 49). It is important to note that this type of item

does not reward partial accuracy. As in previous years, there was also an item that required

students to indicate how information is sequenced in a text (see Item 34).

Teachers can view school-specific performance information through the QCAA’s SunLANDA

program. SunLANDA is available online through the School Portal on the QCAA home page.

State schools can also access this content through OneSchool. SunLANDA displays the

performance of classes, subgroups, and individuals within the school and compares the school’s

performance with that of the state and nation. Most importantly, hyperlinked to each item are the

analyses and teaching ideas to help teachers and students with this type of question.

Performance

90.8% of Queensland students performed at or above the national minimum standard for

reading, compared to a national average of 91.8%.

As expected, the level of difficulty increased across the test, with early units having much

higher facility rates than later units. Generally Triathlon and Hunting presented very few

challenges for students. However, Item 10 proved to be an exception with a facility rate of

49.85%. The facility rate remained relatively high for the next unit Sport bridges nations, with the

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exception of the last two items. In both instances, students were required to focus on the author’s

intent, by identifying the author’s position and the style of the article. The next unit, Goblin sharks,

required students to make more inferences and interpretations, with Items 22 and 23 proving the

most demanding. For Item 22, students had to make intertextual links between an introduced

quotation and the stimulus text. Item 23 asked students to consider again the author’s intent. In

this case, students were asked why comparison and contrast had been used in the text.

The next two texts, Star struck and Seeing stars, dealt with similar subject matter. Item 34

from Seeing stars proved to be one of the most difficult items in the test with the second lowest

facility rate (17.47%). The difficulty of this item was because students needed to sequence five

arguments in the order in which they appear in the text. All five arguments had to be correctly

sequenced for the response to be considered correct. Item 36 referred to both texts and asked

the students to identify two topics that appear in both texts. As this is a simple literal recall

question, the low facility rate (33.97%) might be due to the large number of options provided.

Although Should students have a job while they are studying? seemed quite a simple text,

some items proved a challenge for most students. Item 43 had the lowest facility rate (16.16%) of

all the items. Students experienced difficulty choosing a suitable adverb that described both

writers’ styles. It is possible that students were not familiar with the word candidly (the key) and

so they could not apply this concept. That the word objectively was the most popular response

suggests that students mainly chose words with which they were familiar.

With the exception of Item 44, the items on the unit The sword of Damocles often required

students to make high-level inferences. This unit also included a multiple-response item (Item

49). Like other such items in this year’s test, the facility rate for this item was low (23.46%).


As a general note, all items involving purpose, main idea, theme or tone of the text in whole or

part challenge students because they have to understand the whole of the text in order to answer

the question. The big challenge for teachers is to get students to annotate texts in the classroom

and discuss them in groups so that they can see how all the parts of the text contribute towards

the meaning of the whole. This is the time to discuss the patterns in the text (e.g. cause and

effect), identify connections between ideas in the text, the two or three main parts of the text and

how the parts contribute to the overall meaning. All of this should occur before they begin a close

study of the text. Students will handle the distractors in the items much better if they are clear

about the subject matter and the purpose of the text before they proceed to the items.

Teachers need to encourage students to read for pleasure and recreation to extend their

knowledge of themselves and the world around them. Reading develops empathy for characters

and people in difficult situations. Students also need to be able to participate confidently in a

close study of a text, to check for fallacies and persuasive techniques, and to identify emotive

language and literary techniques. World citizens need to be discerning and capable readers and

confident speakers and writers about those texts.

The complexity of the reading process is made visible when students discuss texts and how

they arrive at their personal understanding of the text. Teachers are the facilitators of this

process, not the leaders. Their focus should be on:

finding authentic texts which appeal to adolescent children

providing a range of genres and a range of texts from classic or traditional texts to texts with

postmodern elements

promoting higher-order questioning of texts (both set texts for special study and unseen texts for

close study)

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reading aloud to students to promote reading for pleasure (sometimes at Year 9 this is forgotten)

developing an awareness of how the parts of the text combine to create a whole through both

semantic (links between the ideas) and syntactic (grammatical links) cohesion

encouraging students to make inferences as they read (an informed guess backed by evidence or

a statement about the unknown based on the known)

encouraging the link between reading and writing by asking students to regularly write analytical

paragraphs about an aspect of what they have read (which includes a controlling central idea)

in response to the question, e.g. Can this character be trusted? Is there a shift in tone in this

text?

encouraging students to look deeper into a text by drawing on analytical skills, e.g. explore gaps

and silences, consider writer bias, look at contradictions within the text, look for themes,

hidden purposes and so on and reread the text from another perspective (e.g. a

contemporary, feminist, eco-critical perspective)

encouraging adolescent boys to be active readers and make connections between the text and

their own knowledge and experiences.

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Numeracy


The numeracy strands are abbreviated as follows: Number and algebra (NA); Measurement

and geometry (MG); Statistics and probability (SP). All items are worth one score point.

The percentage columns give facility rates (percentage correct). These results are based on

provisional data.

Item Strand Answer Qld% Aust% Description

Calculator-allowed items

1 MG B 89.48 89.98 Converts a time from the 24-hour system to

the 12-hour system, using am/pm notation.

2 NA B 68.73 68.77 Solves a simple rate problem in context, using

technology.

3 SP D 85.88 87.34 Interprets a two-way table to solve a problem.

4 SP C 89.25 90.07 Describes probabilities using fractions,

decimals and percentages.

5 NA C 64.68 68.28 Subtracts fractions with related denominators

in context.

6 NA B 67.28 68.67 Calculates the total profit for different sales.

7 NA F 73.24 72.37 Describes the rule to continue a multiplicative

sequence.

8 MG B 73.14 71.52 Determines the coordinates of a point after a

translation on the Cartesian plane.

9 MG C 84.2 84.33 Determines the front view of an isometric

drawing made of cubes.

10 SP C 47.23 52.75 Determines the probability of an event from

past trials.

11 MG 400 63.2 63.82 Converts between common metric units of

capacity to solve a problem in context.

12 NA B 60.82 63.45 Identifies the correct representation of

decimals on a number line.

13 MG B 67.67 68.83 Converts metric units of length.

14 NA D 64.91 65.8 Identifies the sketch of a linear graph using the

coordinates of two points in context.

15 MG 80 57.65 57.8 Uses the angle properties of a quadrilateral to

calculate the size of a missing angle.

16 MG C 52.39 55.35

Uses the area of a rectangle and the length of

one side to determine the length of the other

side.

17 SP B 66.95 69.01 Identifies a method for gathering information

involving one numerical and one categorical

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variable.

18 NA A 39.57 42.56 Rounds to the nearest hundredth.

19 SP D 51.34 54.57 Interprets information from a column graph

which does not start at zero.

20 NA 0.057 56.28 60.26 Represents the numerical form of a decimal

that is given in context.

21 NA A 57.49 60.42 Chooses equivalent expression to factorise a

given algebraic expression.

22 NA C 32.29 32.15 Determines the gradient of a line on the

Cartesian plane.

23 MG A 37.79 40.49 Calculates a partial perimeter in metres from

dimensions provided in millimetres.

24 SP 7 34.86 36.36 Solves a problem with an ‘and’ condition using

a Venn diagram.

25 MG A 61.06 63.84 Calculates a scale factor that involves a

change of units.

26 NA 20 21.41 25.34 Calculates the percent increase using

technology.

27 MG A 39.81 40.27 Identifies the image of an object after a

reflection and a rotation.

28 MG D 20.96 22.42 Converts from square centimetres to square

millimetres.

29 NA 450 54.89 57.28 Interprets the graph of a linear equation to

solve a problem.

30 NA 5.85 36.05 37.64

Solves a rate problem in context involving

multiplying and dividing decimals by whole

numbers.

31 MG D 36.2 39.66 Uses a timetable and time duration to

determine a departure time.

32 NA E 25.95 28.99 Determines an algebraic expression for length

given two variables.

33 NA 337.5 23.53 27.66 Calculates the simple interest earned.

34 SP 91.3 14.06 19.39 Determines a probability from collected data

and expresses it as a percent.

35 NA 82 13.12 18.03 Solves a multi-step problem expressing one

quantity as a percentage of another.

36 NA 10 19.27 23.08

Identifies a value of a denominator that

satisfies an inequality expressed with

fractions.

37 MG 2572.5 13.19 15.32 Calculates the area of a trapezium.

38 SP AD 10.21 13.59 Interprets and compares data in two stem-and-

leaf plots.

39 MG 7935 18.74 21.26 Calculates the volume of a triangular prism.

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40 NA 32 12.13 15.09 Solves a problem using algebra involving

percentage and ratio.

Non-calculator items

1 NA E 71.63 75.65 Calculates the percentage of one quantity in

relation to the whole.

2 NA B 51.06 51.61 Expresses a 5-digit number in scientific

notation.

3 NA 13 57.41 60.42 Solves a division word problem that involves

interpreting the remainder.

4 NA C 68.17 69.8 Uses a direct proportion relationship and ratio

to solve a problem in context.

5 NA 2334.75 43.52 46.23 Subtracts decimals using mental and written

strategies.

6 NA C 38.33 38.89 Evaluates an expression using order of

operations.

7 NA 50 22.17 25.92 Calculates fractions of quantities where the

result is a whole number.

8 NA 288 12.49 16.02 Evaluates the sum of numbers expressed as

powers of positive integers.

About the test

The Numeracy test consisted of 48 items from three strands across two tests — a Calculator-

allowed paper (CA) with 40 items and a Non-calculator paper (NC) with 8 items. Not all items in

the Calculator-allowed paper required the use of a calculator. The distribution of the 48 items

across the strands was:

26 Number and algebra

14 Measurement and geometry

8 Statistics and probability.

All items in the Non-calculator paper were from the Number and algebra strand.

Approximately 63% of items were multiple-choice, with the remaining 37% requiring students

to construct their own answers. While the majority of students attempted to answer all questions,

many students omitted the more challenging items towards the end of the Calculator-allowed

paper. Most of these required a constructed response rather than selecting an answer from given

options. These items are designed to differentiate student performance — to provide

opportunities for higher performing students to demonstrate their ability to reason mathematically.

The percentage of students providing no answer to constructed-response items in the test

ranged from 2% to 20% (for the final item of the Calculator-allowed paper, i.e. Item 40). This item

had many steps to be completed. It required students to interrogate several pieces of written

information regarding the mass content of a cereal blend, translate this information into

mathematical relationships, and form an equation (or an equivalent relationship) to be solved to

determine the fat content in 200 grams of the cereal.

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Performance

Student results for Numeracy in Year 9 are reported as a single score.

The percentage of students who correctly answered Calculator-allowed items ranged from

90% (Item 1) down to 10% (Item 38). Item 38 required students to interpret and compare two

stem-and-leaf plots. Twenty-one of the 40 items were answered correctly by more than 50% of

Queensland students.

For the Non-calculator items, the percentage of students answering items correctly ranged

from 72% (Item 1) down to 13% (Item 8). Item 8 required students to evaluate the sum of

numbers expressed as powers of positive integers. Four out of the eight Non-calculator items

were answered correctly by more than 50% of Queensland students.

There were some significant differences between the facility rates (percentage of correct

responses) of the national cohort of Year 9 students and those of Queensland students.

Queensland students performed equal to or above the national cohort on three items in the

Calculator-allowed paper (Items 7, 8 and 22). They were 4% or more below the national rate on 4

items (10, 33, 34 and 35). Two of these items were from the Number and algebra strand and two

were from the Statistics and probability strand. The largest difference was 5.5% for Item 10,

where students had to determine the probability of an event from the relative frequencies of past

trials.

On the Non-calculator paper, Queensland students performed below the national cohort on all

eight items, however this differential was small. It was only in Item 1 where the difference of

state/national performance was greater than 4%. Item 1 involved calculating the percentage of

one quantity in relation to the whole.

Regarding gender differences in Queensland students for either paper, male students

performed better than female students on 60% of the Calculator-allowed items and males out-

performed females on 75% of the Non-calculator items.

In particular, Queensland male students out-performed female students on 24 of the 40 items

in the Calculator-allowed paper. For nine of these items (2, 5, 10, 11, 12, 13, 18, 23 and 26) the

difference was 5% or greater, with the most significant difference being 10% (for Items 11 and

12).

In the Non-calculator paper, male students out-performed female students on six of the eight

items, with a difference of 5% or greater on three items (1, 4 and 7), with Item 1 having the

largest difference of 9%. However, female students out-performed male students by more than

5% on Item 5, which involved finding the difference (i.e. subtraction) between two amounts of

money set in a context.


Across the Year 9 Numeracy test, 13 items had facility rates of less than 30%. Most of these

were in the latter parts of each paper which were the more difficult items in the test.

Two of these items (36 in the CA paper and 8 in the NC paper) were purely mathematical,

involving the interpretation and use of mathematical symbols and conventions. Item 36 involved a

fractional inequality with an unknown in the denominator to be determined. Item 8 presented a

sequence of numbers each expressed in index form where the students were required to add the

first four terms together. Both of these items required a constructed response.

Other difficult items were those presented as word problems that described real-world

contexts often including diagrams or tables. Students had to interpret the presented information

before determining the mathematical procedure(s) required to solve them. Many students found

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word problems particularly challenging. It seems that reading, interpreting and deciding what to

do may be part of the difficulty. Understanding relies on familiarity with mathematical and

everyday language used in a mathematical context. Teachers should encourage the use of

strategies such as:

reading the whole question more than once, the first time to get a general idea of what it is about,

and subsequent readings to identify important information and what the question is asking

circling or underlining key information

sorting information into a more useful form by drawing a diagram or making a table or list.

These strategies may also help students to identify the mathematics they already know or that

they need to use to solve the problem. Teachers should also provide opportunities for students to

solve problems from a range of both real-life and purely mathematical contexts.

Multi-step problems also proved challenging, particularly where students needed to apply

different mathematical understandings from either the same strand or across different strands, or

across different representations (word, visual, symbolic). For example, challenging multi-step

items included:

repeated use of percentage and discounts (CA Item 35)

comparisons of two graphical displays (CA, Item 38)

percentages, proportions and algebraic relationships (CA, Item 40)

repeated fractions of a quantity (NC, Item 7).

Mathematics is sometimes taught as isolated number concepts. Teachers should consider

combining mathematics from multiple strands. This will enable students to make connections

between different areas of mathematics. Results also suggest that students may have had

difficulty deciding on a strategy to solve problems and then checking the reasonableness of their

answers. Problem solving should be taught in a range of situations, from simple to complex, and

familiar to unfamiliar.

Students’ visual literacy influences their ability to make sense of the mathematical data

presented with different representations — pictures, diagrams, tables and graphs. Approximately

half the items across the two papers involved students reading and interpreting some form of

visual display. A strategy to assist students with visual literacy would be to present students with

a variety of diagram types to interpret the information presented. Even questions without visual

stimulus may be conceptualised by drawing diagrams or using models.

A number of items in the test involved calculations for which students should have been able

to use formulas (e.g. simple interest calculation, perimeter, area of a trapezium, volume of prisms

and area conversion). Providing a student with a formula or rule does not on its own help develop

their understanding of a concept. Students need to be provided with opportunities to explore and

understand the relationships. Some may benefit from the use of hands-on activities using

concrete materials and models to explore relationships and help develop an understanding of

why a formula is a general rule that works in all cases.

Many CA items involved applications of percentages such as percentage increase, simple

interest, probability, sales and discounts. Percentage as a concept continues to challenge

students. They need to understand that a percentage is merely a representation of a fraction or

part of a whole expressed in hundredths, showing a proportional relationship between two

quantities. As percentages are used extensively in the retail and banking sectors, the use of

contexts from everyday situations, e.g. discounts, interest rates, probabilities and population

statistics, will enable students to see the relevance and usefulness of percentages. Students

should also be able to recall the percentage equivalents of common fractions as an aid to

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checking calculations and for estimation purposes. Teachers should not assume that students

know how to perform percentage calculations with a calculator. Percentages on a calculator

should be explicitly taught to students using both the percentage button if present and without a

percentage button.

QCAA resources

Please refer to SunLANDA Online for a detailed analysis of individual test items, including

teaching ideas designed to assist with the development of the understanding and skills required

by each item. SunLANDA Online is available to all schools on the School Portal link on the QCAA

website. Additionally, SunLANDA Online materials are available to State schools through

OneSchool.

When looking at the data for any single test item, teachers can compare the grouped data for

their class with that of the state or national cohort. This will indicate the level of difficulty that

students experienced with that item. For some items, the differences between the national, state

and class data may not be significant, but teachers may still investigate possible reasons for any

performance issues of students on items that test basic concepts that are fundamental to

numeracy development.

naplan state report – year 9 - bettereducation.com.au

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